My first impressin of the USA? Its clean, lots of cars, not that much traffic. And there is a lot of white face people. I have a hard time understanding there English. My english is Filipino english with a Filipino accent. Theirs is english with an american accent. I later learned that there is a variety of american accent.
After spending a couple of weeks in Seattle, Washington I flew to Chicago my final destination. I still have $50 in my pocket all the money I got in the world. Chicago is big and busy. Ed took me to his apartment in Oak Park, Ill. My friend from Consolidated Foods lives in Oak Park, Illinois about 10 miles west of downtown Chicago. I will lived in his apartment until I get a job which took me about a month to do. Ed's apartment is in the second floor of a house at the corner. There is a laundry service across the street. Ed is working for Mars Candy Company. Before leaving Philippines Ed asked me to contact the supervisor of the pickle plant of CFC which I did. Apparently Ed was asking for the recipe for making pickles. The supervisor refuse in giving the recipe. That's fine. Ed should have offer him some money for the secret. Ed is married to Belen and they have one boy. Ed was driving a Falcon car I believe, it was green in color. Ed told me my car will be a Nova. What? He is telling me what car to buy? I finally landed a job at Kitchens of Sara Lee Inc. which is in Deerfield, Ill. It is a long way where I have to take the subway to to to downtown, walk ten blocks to get to the train station, ride the train for an hour to Deerfield and then walk a mile or so to the plant of Sara Lee. It probably took me 2 hours one way. On the way back I hitch a ride with one of the employees. I immediately bought a car as soon as I can. It is a yellow '69 Camaro which I found out was not brand new but a demo model. I went back to the car dealer and returned the car. I got a shiny brand new red '69 Camaro, my first car. I got it on a Tuesday and on a Friday we drove to Canada to visit Nicki. The problem is I have not driven that much so it was stressful. On the morning of the trip a police patrol car stopped me for making a left turn on a no-left turn intersection. But I got a ticket hours before. So I have to go to the police station to post a bond, $20. I went to Canada with a traffic violation ticket, no driver license because it was the practice back then that they get your license until your ticket is resolved.
With me in my brand new '69 Camaro is Joe and Cora. Cora is the older sister of Nicki and later I would call her Ate Cora. Joe is married to Cora. We met each other back in Manila. Joe is a doctor and will later on join the US Navy as a physician. Joe retired from the navy and worked for the state of California and then for the Federal Government Joe became a close friend. We spent a lot of times with our family together usually in their house in Kemah, Schaumburg, Ill. or in our house in Bolingbrook.
I took room and board in a house in Warwick. Owner is Bob Randolp. He is gay but never bother me and I treated him with much respect. Bob has two german shepherds and two guys living with him. He drinks a lot and we got to talk a lot once in a while. He said he once drove from Chicago to New York while drunk or too much to drink. He survived because he followed an eight wheeler to NY. Bob was married once but got divorce. I paid $80 for a room in the second floor. Otto introduced me to Bob. Otto is a works with the cook at Sara Lee. When I got married I invited Bob and he came. He gave us a really nice set of utensils which today we still have and never used. When I bought my camaro, the salesman gave me a demo. I promptly returned it protesting that I thought I was buying a brand new car. Bob worked at the dealership as the manager of car insurances. Bob helped me returned the car and get my brand new red '69 Camaro.
When I was applying to buy the Camaro the dealership told me I need a co-signer for the loan. I asked Ed to signed for me and he agreed. So we went to the Chevrolet dealership. I excused myself to go to the bathroom. When I returned Ed was gone. I asked the salesman where is my friend? He said I don't think he is your friend. Ed left and I saw him waiting on a bus with his boy in tow. This is the last time I saw Ed, I never saw nor heard from him again. If dos not trust him I would never trust him too. Goodbye. And when I told Bob the story he agreed to signed for me. This is the kind of guy Bob is. And so I finally got my car. Oh wait I have to returned the yellow one and get the brand new red one.
Well Nicki is in Canada and I wanted to drive and go there. On the day I got my car which is a Tuesday I drove to Kitchener, Ontario on the same week on Friday. It was fall and the temperature is getting cooler. Joe and Cora accompanied me. Driving there takes about 8 hours. Four hours to Detroit and another four hours to Kitchener, Ontario.
